It was the fall before the fall. The Roman Revolution describes the little known "crisis of the third century". Long before the collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, in the years between AD 235-275, barbarian invasions, civil war and plague devastated ancient Rome. Out of this ordeal, a revolutionary new order arose.

Nick Holmes challenges conventional thinking, suggesting that the classical Roman Empire 'fell' as early as the third century when it was replaced by a radical new Christian Roman Empire, ruled from Constantinople. He presents the near collapse of the Roman Empire in the third century as a world-changing event. It was the first step in the history of the Fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the modern world.

This book is the first of a four-volume series that will chart the full course of the Fall of the Roman Empire. The second book, due out in 2023, will cover the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century. The last two books will look at the Roman reconquest of Italy and North Africa under the Emperor Justinian in the sixth century, followed by the rise of Islam and the demise of the Eastern Roman Empire in the seventh century.